


The Punishment of Loki

by vassalady



Category: The Avengers (2012)
Genre: M/M, Minor Violence, Norse Mythology - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-05-09
Updated: 2012-05-09
Packaged: 2017-11-05 01:42:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,931
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/401068
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vassalady/pseuds/vassalady
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Loki comes to Steve for his help, but none can look upon Loki's face without feeling revulsion. This is Loki's punishment.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Punishment of Loki

**Author's Note:**

> Warnings: Minor violence, but it really isn't graphic.
> 
> I just wanted Steve, Loki, and pain. So I wrote this quickly. Unrelated to any other Steve/Loki fics I have written or will write.

When Steve returned home, he flicked the light switch and was startled to see Loki sitting on the couch, his legs drawn up to his chest and his head on his arms. 

"What are you doing here?" Steve said. He moved sideways, slowly, keeping Loki in front of him. He let the grocery bags slip to the floor in the kitchen. Loki hadn’t been seen on Earth for over a year. “Slipped out of Asgardian prison?”

Loki raised his head just enough to follow Steve with his eyes.

His shield was in the bedroom, as was his phone. Steve took note of the exits. From where he stood now, he could easily escape through the kitchen window. And if needed, he had plenty of pots, pans, and knives within easy reach.

"Don't have anything to say?" Steve shifted his position slightly. He had left a pan lid out. He could have it in hand in a second.

Loki raised his face completely then. Steve involuntary brought his hand to his face in shock. Loki's mouth was sewn shut, stitches crisscrossing over his lips. Dried blood coated his skin, and, as Steve watched, horrified, Loki attempted to speak, causing new blood to appear where the stitches held in his skin.

Steve stumbled back. He felt nauseous looking at Loki. He thought of death and decay, rotting corpses and festering body parts. He thought of maggots and disease and the stink of the dead, of flesh ripped from bones of bodies still alive, left in agonizing pain. The Avengers, he needed to call the Avengers. With great effort, he tore his gaze away, and the dark thoughts fled, leaving only a faint impression. Steve gripped the counter, and he discovered he was trembling.

He took several deep breaths before looking back. Loki had hidden his lower face, leaving his eyes exposed. He watched Steve.

He didn't feel ill to look at Loki anymore. He still shook, and he tried to calm himself. The feelings of revulsion didn't return. Where had they come from? His curiosity drove him forward. It was a bad idea. He knew that. But he had to see it again.

Loki didn't move when he touched his shoulder, although he continued to watch Steve with wary eyes. Steve took a deep breath, then pushed Loki's forehead back.

The nausea hit him again. He fell back to the wall, panting, terrified. Loki hid his face once again.

"What-" Steve choked on his words. He took another moment before trying again. "Is that your punishment?"

Loki's nod was slight.

Steve put his face in his hands. He wanted to do nothing more than curl up under his covers and hide from the world. Run. Hide. Block out everything. It was a feeling he hadn't had in years, not since his mother's death.

He needed to calm down. He needed to think clearly. "What are you doing here?" he said.

Loki lifted his hand and pointed at Steve.

"Me? What do you want me for?" He tried to push himself off the wall, but it was as if all his strength had left him. "If you mean to kill me, just do it."

Loki slowly shook his head and pointed to Steve again. Then he pointed to himself.

"Why do you want me?"

He pointed again, but Steve didn't understand. Then Loki closed his eyes tightly and sat there for a long moment.

Something flashed in front of Steve. After a few seconds, there was another flash, and a second Loki stood in front of Steve. This one was a mirage, too transparent to be real and flickering in and out of sight.

The mirage opened its unscarred lips, but no sound came out.

Frustrated, Steve managed to push himself off the wall. "What do you want?" He was shouting, and he was still terrified when he thought of Loki and his sewn up mouth..

The mirage flickered again. Steve could see Loki on the couch curl further in on himself. Then he heard Loki's voice. It was soft, like it came from far away, and it didn't match the movements of the mirage's lips, like an out-of-sync film.

"Help me... Please..."

"How?" Steve said, still shouting. "Why me?"

"Sever the ties. Undo the knots. Save me. Please." The voice grew more child-like as it spoke. "Please. Please."

The voice cut out. The mirage vanished. Loki slumped forward.

Steve watched Loki, but he did not move.

He wanted Loki out of here. He felt ill and worn out. He didn't think, he just acted.

In the kitchen, he found a small knife. Clutching it tightly, he approached Loki, who remained still. Steve briefly shut his eyes. He could do this. He knew what would happen, but he could withstand it.

He knelt on the couch beside Loki. Carefully, he lifted his face.

Although he had braced himself, the nausea still forced him back. Loki watched him, no longer trying to cover his face. As Steve stared at Loki, he began to feel his skin boil. He screamed. It was worse than any injury he'd ever sustained. It was worse than his procedure with the super soldier serum when his body had literally rebuilt itself.

Loki lunged for him and grabbed his face between his hands.

Steve gritted his teeth. The pain was so strong. He wanted to claw his skin off, throw it away. He felt a very different pain, a sharp twinge, and he realized he was gripping the knife by its blade. Loki was attacking him. He needed to act. He raised his arm. It hurt so much to move.

Blind to everything but Loki and the searing pain, Steve raised the knife, forcing his way through the agony, and brought it down on Loki.

He had meant to stab his head. But he missed and hit the web of stitching instead, and the knife shattered against them.

He was still screaming. The pain, it needed to stop now. He couldn't, his eyes were going to explode from his head. No, his body was trying to tear itself apart. And Loki was still gripping his face, fingers like steel claws. Steve thrashed underneath him. He clawed blindly at whatever he could reach. Loki wouldn't let go. Steve smashed his head forward into Loki's, and he bit into his lip, into the stitches and the blood and the maggots that crawled out of the wounds and the wasps that flew from his mouth and the stink of rotting flesh that overwhelmed him.

The strands broke. 

Steve suddenly found himself in his apartment, his body and skin whole, and Loki's hands still pressed to his face. He tasted fresh blood and pulled away.

Loki was crying. Steve's eyes followed the tears that rolled down his cheeks and saw the stitches dissolving. The wounds remained, but they looked old. Where Steve had bitten Loki, however, the skin was intact except for where Steve's teeth had punctured Loki's skin. Fresh blood seeped slowly from those new marks.

With the same rapidity at which his nightmare had fled, Steve realized how to fix Loki. He moved forward and kissed each wound, gently. They healed under his touch, and when he pulled away once more, it was as if Loki had never been bound.

Loki's grip on his face had softened. Steve placed his hands over Loki's. He searched Loki's eyes for something, but he appeared lost and scared.

"I saved you," Steve said. He meant it as part explanation and as part warning. Loki owed him his life. There was no reason for Loki to respect such a thing, but Steve didn't know what else he could say.

"Yes, you." Loki's voice cracked. "You did." It was scratchy and weak, but Steve saw something in Loki brighten a little at the sound of his own voice. "I think I need to sleep."

Loki fell asleep right there, lying on top of him.

He felt exhausted. The memory of pain was drifting far away. He felt too tired and too confused. Loki had the right idea. Steve, without considering it more than an instant, wrapped his arms around Loki and fell asleep.

 

When he awoke, he found Loki sitting in the chair, staring at him. Steve moved to sit up, but a sharp pain stopped him. He looked down at his hand to find it bandaged. The couch was also partially destroyed. Steve vaguely recalled ripping at the upholstery with his nails. But much of what had happened eluded him.

"I..." he said. Then he shook his head. He remembered coming home. He remembered Loki being there, he remembered fear, but at what?

Loki had been bound somehow. And Steve had freed him.

"What exactly... was that?"

"You freed me of Odin's bonds," Loki said. "His punishment for my actions. And for that I thank you."

"But I don't understand. Why did you come here? Why me?" He shivered. He began to recall more of what had happened. He didn't remember the images he saw or the pain he'd felt, but he remembered having them. “I could have just killed you.”

"And I you. But you are a sickeningly honest man and far too righteous for your own good. And you have strength to rival an Asgardian."

His mouth had been sewn shut. He had begged Steve for help. "Coming from you, I'll consider it a compliment. What are you still doing here?"

Loki slowly smiled. "When you broke my previous bonds, I was bound anew. I owe you not just my life, but my magic and my very freedom, Steve Rogers."

"And being bound to me, what does that entail?" Being bound to a villain like Loki wouldn’t likely bring anything good.

But Loki‘s response surprised him. "I will not act against you any longer. Midgard isn't worth my time, anyway. That is all I promise. But if you want more from me...” Loki shifted forward in the chair. His eyes swept over Steve, and Steve felt too exposed. “You can have it."

More? He didn‘t want anything more from Loki. And then Steve remembered kissing Loki to heal his wounds and Loki's tears as he was freed. Something heavy settled in his stomach.

"Consider it, Captain. You need only call." Loki stood. “You succeeded where most would have gone insane or given up. You are a different man from most.”

And then Loki disappeared from the room.

 

A month later, Steve stood at his window. He felt silly doing this. But he looked up at the sky, where somewhere, there existed other worlds, with technology that was even more advanced than the incredible present, that was pure magic to Steve, and he said, "Loki?"

He heard a step behind him, and when he turned, Loki approached him, arms crossed. "You took less time than I thought." He smirked.

"I don't want to own you, Loki."

"Hush." Loki moved closer and brought his lips to Steve in a gentle kiss. "In this manner, I bind myself to you willingly." Steve shivered from Loki's breath on his cheek. "Will you do the same for me?"

"I'll consider it."

He kissed Loki back, wrapping his arms around him.

At night, sometimes, he remembered the sensations of Loki’s punishment coursing through him. He remembered the pain and the terror. He relived every horror imaginable that it had conjured in his mind. But when he awoke with Loki at his side, the skin around Loki’s mouth smooth but for the faint scarring from Steve’s bite, he forgot it all again.


End file.
